Future shortage of young workers - or jobs?

[Lenona]

We're always hearing that low birth rates in industrialized nations will mean a disastrous shortage of young workers.

BUT...maybe the available jobs won't be as numerous as people think, and not just because of automation?

That's something I never thought of before.

It's from Martin Ford's 2015 book, "Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future."

(Specifically, the last quarter of chapter 8, which is titled "Consumers, Limits to Growth...and Crisis?")

http://digamo.free.fr/marford15.pdf

Scroll down to page 220 and read to 223.

Quick summary: Ford points out that in aging Japan, millennials cannot find stable careers and often live with their parents, well past age 30. In Italy and Spain, "two of Europe's most rapidly graying countries," the youth unemployment rate in Jan. 2014 was 42% and 58%, respectively. Why does this happen? One reason is that growing numbers of retirees spend less, and mainly on health care. So, "demand for products and services also declines, and that means fewer jobs."

And he predicted that consumer spending would go down in the U.S. as well, if for somewhat different reasons. (Of course, inflation is causing that as well.)


Reader reviews:

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/22928874-rise-of-the-robots

More on growth:

https://groups.google.com/g/alt.obituaries/c/6UdLgNHvLCA/m/bb2LzVGRAgAJ